WHAT COMPINGO IS FOR

A warm welcome, no, let's make that an Italian-style big hug and a kiss, to all - family, friends, colleagues, well-informed visitors and curious surfers, as well as any of you who just typed in the wrong URL!

Rest here a little while and stretch your ears ;-)

The power of music! WOW! I've seen music move to tears folks who'd never blinked at their own or others' tremendous personal tragedies, I've seen autistic children suddenly relate with startled joy to the world around them just by learning to clap their hands in time, and I've witnessed hundreds of times the incredible miracle of instant and deep communication between musicians whose mother-tongues are not even on the same branch linguistically.

WARNING: the next two paragraphs are carefully designed boredom-resistance testers (a courtesy service for our visitors).

What is a 'piece' of music if not a ritualized form of emotional play, of an individual musician's (or a group of musicians') playing with the creation and resolution of emotional tension? It is in fact an authentic 'renewable source of energy', inasmuch as it unleashes energy by freeing tension, leaving us feeling both relieved and recharged, increasing our awareness. Whether we're talking about Mozart or Monk, if music does not generate new tension, largely by focusing through musical means the listener's inner tension, and offer ways to channel and resolve it, the attention of said listener will surely not be maintained for long, right?

And how is this tension produced if not by 'setting up' the listener's expectations which are then fulfilled or momentarily side-stepped in a more or less sophisticated way (from three-chord polkas to Shostakovich symphonies)? Indeed, I believe that the history of western music can be described, in an oversimplified but not altogether untrue way, as the story of what musicians call the 'evaded' or 'false' cadence (also called 'deceptive' by Americans and 'interrupted' by the British). The cadence is the crucial musical moment of catharsis, when the 'steam is let off', and it can be argued that the best representatives our musical culture have always sought out new and more efficacious ways to prolong in time and thus intensify the build-up preceding this emotional release. Subtle ways, dramatic ways. In real time, in 'psychological' time. Certain harmonic, rhythmic and structural 'tricks', or 'ritualizations' to be more formal, have nigh universal potency, and musicians learn them, not always consciously and deliberately, and use them to massage the listeners' soul (and, it couldn't be any other way, their own).

If you've read this far (hey, you passed the test!), you may be wondering what relevance all this might have to what should ostensibly be a chatty intro to a commercial site's co-owner. Well, I'm just trying to instill in you a bit of the same sense of awed reverence for music and musicians in general that I myself never fail to feel. Much music may tickle and amuse you, but great music can change your life forever and for the better. Even in our present (some would say recently ending) frenetic era of 'instant gratification', fast food, short attention-spans and bite-sized musical formulas, we humans all feel the need to stretch out somehow sometime, and music will always be around to offer the chance. The important thing is to find the right music for one's own make-up. The right music can enhance and prolong our lives.

Weird as it may sound, my choice of artists for Compingo's productions, without embarassing them by ranting about their greatness, has always been done with a humble eye to providing YOU with new opportunities for emotional growth. I do absolutely believe in the power of this music. The styles (one might say the ways the composers prefer to ritualize their discoveries) are different, even radically so, but I know that the healing attitude is shared. Different people will respond differently to these varied 'forms of treatment', but I trust everyone can find something that 'strikes a chord'. Whatever gives us profound loving joy is exactly what we need.

Thanks for letting me tell you all this - come by whenever you like!

MARK BALDWIN HARRIS

P.S. if you're interested, I've slapped together a sketchy bio/résumé (actually a state-of-the-art deep-sleep-induction device) dealing mainly with my involvement with the Italian music scene. click here!

P.P.S. No matter what he tries to tell you, I never played with Carlo Focarelli (at least not willingly).